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I'm right there with you OP. I live in central NJ and we're still without power. No kids yet but my wife is 9 months pregnant and is due next week. We're lucky to have a generator that can power the whole house but we're running the bear minimum to conserve gas. Thankfully the lines have eased up a bit now that more stations are getting power. But it's really going to suck if my wife goes into labor and we have to bring the baby back to a powerless house. Both of our parents' are out of power too so we're really hoping things can get back to normal asap. I try not to complain with the coast getting pummeled beyond recognition , but this is really starting to wear on us. Not to mention the F30 hasn't been washed in over 2 weeks

I couldn't have said it better. The only person who rips the ass of the service guy who has probably been pulling 14 hour days for a week and hasn't seen his family, is someone who has never done a real job in their f*cking life.

The techs and engineers are those companies are pretty much killing themselves and want this fixed as badly as the homeowners (if not more). People should be a little more appreciative. If those guys become frustrated and stopped working so hard you wouldn't have power till Xmas.

We'd never voice any displeasure with any of the individual crews, those guys are heroes, they're risking their lives and really helping us out.

The issue is the management of the electric companies themselves. PSE&G, which is my utility company, is bragging about how they have 9,000 additional personnel working 24/7. Meanwhile, my neighborhood hasn't seen more than one crew in the past eight days, and in driving around the entire town the few crews that were assigned here are gone at 5PM.

Whoever is managing the utilization of existing and extended resources is totally dropping the ball. That's the issue, not the crews.

Maybe I'm dense, but I'm not quite understanding how they "dropped the ball". You, along with millions of other people just went through the storm of the century, leaving billions of dollars in damages, millions of trees downed, floods and all other sorts of mayhem. In spite of all of this, they got your electricity back in something like 6 days. That strikes me as nearly miraculous. We had a week long power outage here last summer caused by a 5 minute long severe thunderstorm accompanied by a strong microburst. It took crews from 8 states almost 2 weeks to fix all the damage. I can't imagine what they're dealing with on the east coast right now.

By not knowing who had power and who did not, and having to send out someone to drive around.

They had almost no crews out here for the first 5 days. Our town had only one truck operating for the first 5 days, with all the local people being sent down to Manhattan.

I'll go a bit further. While it's inconvenient to have to stay in a hotel, away from home, there are thousands of people who don't have that option and are crammed into shelters right now... or worse, are still in their homes with plunging temperatures and no heat or power.

There are elderly people who are terrified not because they "lost power" and had to go stay at a hotel but because their homes are going to be labeled uninhabitable and they don't know where they are going to go.

People should be a little more thankful for how "bad" they have it compared to how bad others do.

OK, off of the soap box now.

Besides my primary home, I own a beach house. Those of us who live on the water understand the risks related to storms, so while I'm not saying those people are a lower priority, it's a hazard we beach community owners knowingly accept.

Our primary home is miles away from any coastline and 5 simple trees are down. Had just 1 crew been allocated for 1 day, the trees would be gone and my power would be restored. The mismanagement of the resources is epic.

Besides my primary home, I own a beach house. Those of us who live on the water understand the risks related to storms, so while I'm not saying those people are a lower priority, it's a hazard we beach community owners knowingly accept.

Our primary home is miles away from any coastline and 5 simple trees are down. Had just 1 crew been allocated for 1 day, the trees would be gone and my power would be restored. The mismanagement of the resources is epic.

BJ

I think a visit to the ConEd command center that is dealing with the storm recovery would be both educational and illuminating.

Having been "that guy" who is fixing stuff after a major cluster all I can say is that it is far easier to call plays from the sidelines than to actually get stuff working in a short period of time.

The teams were probably at their best immediately after the storm and have been getting degraded in operational effectiveness as time goes on and they are getting worn out.

I think a visit to the ConEd command center that is dealing with the storm recovery would be both educational and illuminating.

Having been "that guy" who is fixing stuff after a major cluster all I can say is that it is far easier to call plays from the sidelines than to actually get stuff working in a short period of time.

The teams were probably at their best immediately after the storm and have been getting degraded in operational effectiveness as time goes on and they are getting worn out.

That's all fine and good, but it's hard to make progress if you're not sending people to the problem areas.

Again, it's been 8 days and we have seen exactly 1 four member crew in a single truck visit our area with 200+ homes in that span. There are supposedly 9,000 additional workers atop the 4,000 we already had. I don't know with these 13,000 people are, but they've only been on my street for a few hours.

That's all fine and good, but it's hard to make progress if you're not sending people to the problem areas.

Again, it's been 8 days and we have seen exactly 1 four member crew in a single truck visit our area with 200+ homes in that span. There are supposedly 9,000 additional workers atop the 4,000 we already had. I don't know with these 13,000 people are, but they've only been on my street for a few hours.

BJ

Perhaps they knew that with your means, and a manservant to look after you..... I kid, I kid. I hope they get things going soon, I'm sure it is a very frustrating experience.

My point is that while it's frustrating to see how "easy" it is to get your power back on, you probably don't know the entire story such as sub-stations that might be down, and other things that mean you would not be up and running even if they replaced down lines at your immediate location.

And again, as bad as it is to be in a hovel, err... hotel, that's a helluva lot better than many have it right now.

That's all fine and good, but it's hard to make progress if you're not sending people to the problem areas.

Again, it's been 8 days and we have seen exactly 1 four member crew in a single truck visit our area with 200+ homes in that span. There are supposedly 9,000 additional workers atop the 4,000 we already had. I don't know with these 13,000 people are, but they've only been on my street for a few hours.

BJ

Not to be rude but why whine about something that is not in you control. Go do something that is in your control and well within your MEANS, go buy a generator and that way you have power for your hole house. Then you can go get that 328 washed. Good luck
cheers
vern

That's all fine and good, but it's hard to make progress if you're not sending people to the problem areas.

Again, it's been 8 days and we have seen exactly 1 four member crew in a single truck visit our area with 200+ homes in that span. There are supposedly 9,000 additional workers atop the 4,000 we already had. I don't know with these 13,000 people are, but they've only been on my street for a few hours.

BJ

They are first trying to take care of the homes owned by the 1%, then the 54% who pay taxes, and then the 46% who are slackers. I guess we know now where you fit into the equation!

Besides my primary home, I own a beach house. Those of us who live on the water understand the risks related to storms, so while I'm not saying those people are a lower priority, it's a hazard we beach community owners knowingly accept.

Our primary home is miles away from any coastline and 5 simple trees are down. Had just 1 crew been allocated for 1 day, the trees would be gone and my power would be restored. The mismanagement of the resources is epic.

BJ

Why not buy a Generator? You said you're house is under 40F at nights? That seems silly to make your family suffer.

Why not buy a Generator? You said you're house is under 40F at nights? That seems silly to make your family suffer.

Where is he going to find a generator when everyone is looking for one in that area? When the storm was announced I looked for a generator even thought our power lines are buried and we have never lost power for more than 3 hours (basically they shutdown the power to service other hit areas). Not a generator in sight.

Where is he going to find a generator when everyone is looking for one in that area? When the storm was announced I looked for a generator even thought our power lines are buried and we have never lost power for more than 3 hours (basically they shutdown the power to service other hit areas). Not a generator in sight.

Within a 1/2-3/4 hour from where BJ is located there are generators and all the gas, all grades you want without odd or even days. The Trenton area. Not finding a generator is a piss poor excuse. good luck
cheers
vern

If my family had no power I would readily drive 2+ hours each way to get a generator and at least get some electricity working for essentials. If I was a man of BJ's means I would post an ad on Craigslist and offer a $200 delivery fee to anyone willing to pick up a generator and deliver it. You buy the generator on a credit-card and pay someone to bring it to your door along with a few 5 gallon gas cans.

If my family had no power I would readily drive 2+ hours each way to get a generator and at least get some electricity working for essentials. If I was a man of BJ's means I would post an ad on Craigslist and offer a $200 delivery fee to anyone willing to pick up a generator and deliver it. You buy the generator on a credit-card and pay someone to bring it to your door along with a few 5 gallon gas cans.

Not to be rude but why whine about something that is not in you control. Go do something that is in your control and well within your MEANS, go buy a generator and that way you have power for your hole house. Then you can go get that 328 washed. Good luck
cheers
vern

A generator would have made things worse for me.

I have gas for the fireplace, stove, and water so we've been relatively good. The biggest bit of stress during Sandy that we avoided completely were the gas lines- mainly caused by generator owners who need to fill them daily and run out of fuel daily.

The generator wouldn't have restored FiOS for HDTV, phone, and internet so its only real benefit would have been to get the steam boiler going to heat every room of the house. The tradeoff for that and avoiding the gas lines was the bigger win IMHO.

With winter upon us, I'm going to look into a generator that runs off of the gas we have in the house, thus no need for gasoline and lines in the future.

If my family had no power I would readily drive 2+ hours each way to get a generator and at least get some electricity working for essentials. If I was a man of BJ's means I would post an ad on Craigslist and offer a $200 delivery fee to anyone willing to pick up a generator and deliver it. You buy the generator on a credit-card and pay someone to bring it to your door along with a few 5 gallon gas cans.

Better yet, make the manservant do it.

True story:

We got the power back on last night at 10PM and my Verizon FiOS was knocked out. Spent an hour on the phone with tech's, we tried to reboot the system, couldn't do it, required a service call. Problem is, the next service apppointment is 5PM Saturday.

This morning I wake up, go to Starbucks to get some coffee, there are three Verizon service vans in a row, the guys all chatting. Jokingly I go up to them and say "Excuse me, any of you take bribes? I'll give you $200 if you can come to my house today and get me running." To which one of the guys asks me for my phone number, hits a few keys on his Blackberry, bing/bang/boom I have an appointment for 11AM. Off to the ATM, done.

I have gas for the fireplace, stove, and water so we've been relatively good. The biggest bit of stress during Sandy that we avoided completely were the gas lines- mainly caused by generator owners who need to fill them daily and run out of fuel daily.

The generator wouldn't have restored FiOS for HDTV, phone, and internet so its only real benefit would have been to get the steam boiler going to heat every room of the house. The tradeoff for that and avoiding the gas lines was the bigger win IMHO.

With winter upon us, I'm going to look into a generator that runs off of the gas we have in the house, thus no need for gasoline and lines in the future.

BJ

We just got power back after 9 days. JCP&L completely dropped the ball as far as communicating what was going on. We got various stories and were told, the power will be on by Sunday, no Wed, or it should be on between Wed to Sunday, there is a substation down, everyone else with power all around you is on another grid, they had no clue what was going on in the field and for that they suck!

I bought a generator after water damage from Irene last year and had a transfer switch put it. The generator DID run my fios and HDTV, nice thing about the fios is that once plugged it was up and running, also have comcast modem and that was non functioning even when plugged in. So you could have had your fios up and running with the generator.

We just got power back after 9 days. JCP&L completely dropped the ball as far as communicating what was going on. We got various stories and were told, the power will be on by Sunday, no Wed, or it should be on between Wed to Sunday, there is a substation down, everyone else with power all around you is on another grid, they had no clue what was going on in the field and for that they suck!

I bought a generator after water damage from Irene last year and had a transfer switch put it. The generator DID run my fios and HDTV, nice thing about the fios is that once plugged it was up and running, also have comcast modem and that was non functioning even when plugged in. So you could have had your fios up and running with the generator.

Same here on NJ communication. We've got a local blogger who runs our town's Patch site, his Twitter posts are the only thing keeping us sane. The mayor issues a press release every other day, does nothing.

I've been looking into natural gas powered generators as it's my natural gas that's worked perfectly throughout the storm keeping one room warm and allowing us to have hot water and a stove. It's already saved us about $3000 in hotel rooms these past 10 days, going to look at that as a win and throw the cash into a mega backup plan before the winter gets too deep.